London cabbies fight Uber with their own

Miles Bulloch, 18th July 2014

London black cab app Hailo has partnered up with Citymapper, a free city navigation app for Android and iOS, in a bid to compete with private car hire app Uber's partnership with Google Maps.

Citymapper, although only currently available for London, New York, Paris, Berlin, Washington DC, Boston, Madrid and Barcelona, is becoming a staple fixture in Apple's travel app category.

The latest version of the app now fully integrates Hailo in the travel section, where users can store a number of addresses to their profile and then select a travel option, which includes walking, public transport, driving and cabs.

Uber has not had it easy, though, with huge protests from taxi drivers in major cities against the app's use of tourism-led vehicle hire, which traditional taxi services say is creating unfair competition.

Protests even became violent, with Uber taxis being attacked en-route and the company's headquarters vandalised. Hailo's offices have also recently been attacked for the same reasons.

The protests have had the opposite effect, however, with Uber reporting an 850 per cent boost in sales since the incidents.

Travel apps have become essential fixtures in many people's phones in recent years, with Uber worth $18 billion (around £11 billion) on its own, with that amount only looking to increase due to their new partnership with Google.

An intimidating partnership to be sure, but only time will tell if Hailo's partnership with Citymapper will see the same kind of returns.